Lu Sang Restaurant — Restaurant in Da'an District

My wife and I are ABCs and stumbled on this place from a post on the hungryintaipei blog. We were blown away by a couple things.

Attention to detail. We arrived just as it opened and witnessed an employee roll out a floor mat, taking significant time to make sure it was perfectly aligned. He then wiped some steam condensation off of a bunch of windows more than once during our wait for food so customers could better see the food. This sort of attention to detail is rarely seen in tucked away Mom and pop shops (much less in America...) and I appreciate this sort of meticulousness. Customer service. The waitress took our order of lu rou fan and some veggie dish but mentioned that there was a min order per guest to dine in. Since we didn't hit it, I just said we would take out, no big deal. She apologized and said we could sit while we waited. She then brought over some of their house tea which is made from kumquats (very good) and gave us samples of their preserved kumquats to taste. We didn't ask for this but were very happy with her hospitality. We also witnessed another young family come in. Normally you order up front and then get seated but the same waitress said they could get seated first since they had young kids. This sort of customer care was very reassuring to see. Food was good. Lu rou fan portion was a bit small but everything was tasty enough. Prices seemed a little higher than what we've been paying for other similar restaurants but nothing that I could really complain about.

All in all, it was a great experience. Picture menu made ordering easy and our waitress could...

Visited this Yilan resto recommended by my friend's parents in Da'an District. . We ordered the following dishes to share: -Poached Chicken Leg The shiny chicken legs with garlic soy sauce looked enticing. The chicken skin was slightly crispy, and there was a layer of chicken fat jelly between the skin and the boneless tender meat, which melted in our mouths.

-Penghu Boiled Squid Served as a cold dish, the squid was chewy and thickly sliced.

-Stir-fried Water Lily The water lily smelled aromatic and was fresh. The addition of pork slices and fungus enhanced the complexity of the dish.

-Yilan Date Cake The date cake was prepared by mixing their renowned kumquat conserve with tangerine cake, winter melon candy, flour and duck eggs.  The sweet, salty and sour taste created a complex yet enjoyable combination.

-Stir-fried Oyster with Crisbean The oysters were generously covered with crisbean, appearing plump and devoid of fishy taste.

-Stir-fried Yam with Aloe Vera This colourful and healthy dish featured crunchy yam. . The resto required their customers to order food at the entrance before being seated (additional orders were allowed). . Famous for their kumquat conserve, the resto not only served kumquat tea during our meal, but also transformed their kumquat conserve into candy, which was available for purchase...

This place is worthy of 3.5 stars in my opinion. However, my principle is not to round up my ratings.

Rating a restaurant or eatery is highly subjective as stated in my first such reviews several years ago. That said, I strive to be consistent with my own criteria.

I visited this place in late Dec 2020 during dinner hours. It was very crowded and our party of four waited fifteen minutes or so for a table. Most popular Taipei restaurants require hours of wait time without a reservation. Our party might have been lucky or that could be an indicator of the popularity of this place.

The oily rice was worth a special mention as it was better than those served in other restaurants that I have been to.

The up side of this place is the dishes our party ordered that evening were pretty consistently decent with the exception of two, as shared further down in this review.

The fish served that evening was clearly not as fresh as it could be and the cooking method did nothing to neutralize the unpleasant flavor so this particular dish deserved only one star.

The oysters our party ordered were flavorless which was not necessarily bad if the ingredients were fresh. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

In summary, it is a place I would not object to revisiting although I would avoid dishes that require fresh...